Beer Board Approves Permits For Special Events, Include RiverRocks Activities

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Beer permits for five special events taking place in Chattanooga were issued at the meeting of the Beer / Wrecker Board on Thursday morning. Several of these fall under the umbrella of the RiverRocks Festival organized by “Chattanooga Presents”.

The 3 Sisters Festival will take place downtown at Ross’s Landing on Riverfront Parkway. It is a two-day event featuring world class bluegrass music with four bands Friday night and eight bands beginning at noon on Saturday. Carla Pritchard of “Chattanooga Presents” came to the board meeting to get the beer license for the two days.

Commissioner Phillip Sallee told her that he knows she is familiar with the beer code since she is instrumental in putting on many events for the city of Chattanooga. He questioned her, however, about how security would be handled. The Yonder Mountain String Band is performing on Friday evening and is more well known than those that have performed at the event in past years. Because of that, Ms. Pritchard said there would be an increase from last year in the number off-duty police officers. This band will likely draw a bigger crowd, and she said that she wants to make sure it is a family friendly and controlled event. Dr. Clark White told her that her track record is excellent, and made the motion to approve the license, which was granted unanimously.

“Chattanooga Presents” is also the organizer for the RiverRocks grand finale which will take place the night of Oct. 13 at Coolidge Park. The RiverRocks Festival was created to showcase the natural resources that are available in the Chattanooga area and to encourage an outdoor lifestyle and stewardship of the land. Again, because of the excellent reputation of the producers, the beer board issued a permit to allow the sale of beer from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. with no additional discussion.

Gregory Vickrey with the North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy is the coordinator for “Chickstock” which is a benefit for the conservancy. It is the tenth year for this affair which is also included in the RiverRocks celebration. This year it will be held in combination with the Hellbender Race. It will take place Oct. 13 at Greenway Farms, 5031 Gann Store Road in Hixson. Mr. Vickery described this as a low-keyed, family-oriented bluegrass festival. Last year, he said, there were around 1,500 people attending with six police officers for security. This year the plan is to have nine police officers. A license to serve beer during the day was issued unanimously. Beer will be available from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Rooftop Hop is a benefit for Green/Spaces, and the main venue will be at the Bijou parking deck, 215 Broad St., on Oct. 20. There will be five other satellite locations around town, all on rooftops and offering food and cocktails. Tina Shaw Cox came before the beer board to obtain a beer permit for the Bijou location where there will also be a dance band. The board gave the license to serve beer from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. The other five locations are privately hosted and are responsible for their own permitting.

Village Volkswagen, 6001 International Dr., is planning a party for around 200 staff, customers and officials from the Volkswagen factory. A special events license was given to Chris Thomas for the occasion from 6 p.m. to 12 p.m. on Oct. 12.

Manuel Saenz, the new owner of Shogun Japanese Steakhouse at 1806 Gunbarrel Road, has had work done to satisfy building, fire and health department codes in order to obtain a beer license. Officer John Collins told the board that the restaurant has not yet actually passed the fire inspections. Mr. Saenz told the board that he holds all the documentation showing that all required work has been completed. He told the board members that he has been unable to make contact with the fire department to schedule their return inspection and, when phoning, had been put on hold indefinitely. He appealed to the commission to approve the sale of beer when he could get the fire inspector to verify the work and issue the paperwork as opposed to waiting two more weeks for the next meeting. Chairman Christopher Keene told him “I feel your pain, but we have no authority to do that”. He made the suggestion for Mr. Saenz to go to the next City Council meeting and let council members know the difficulties he has had in getting in touch with the fire department.

The next meeting of the Chattanooga Beer / Wrecker Board will be Oct. 18.

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